


Shatter

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 01:52:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14945403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Pillars Weekly Fill 42: Defiant. Still working out some stuff with Tavi’s canon, so Emiri gets this one, too.





	Shatter

**Author's Note:**

> Pillars Weekly Fill 42: Defiant. Still working out some stuff with Tavi’s canon, so Emiri gets this one, too.

 

Edér tried to convince himself he was being paranoid as he strode down the path to Caed Nua. The antsy feeling in his gut was just guilt that he hadn’t visited in a while, not a sign that something was wrong. Emiri had put a lot of coin and time into into fixing up the fortress, he didn’t see how anything _could_ be wrong. He tried to convince himself everything was fine; Emiri would greet him with one of her wide, bright smiles he _swore_ made her glow, plop a cat--probably Luc--in his lap, and they’d catch up on what had occupied their past few months. But he couldn’t.

And when he reached the first place Caed Nua’s banners should have been visible through the trees but weren’t, he knew why. He started walking faster, until he encountered the first piece of rubble, larger than him, stuck in the ground like a javelin. Then he ran. _No, no, no, **no**_. When he was close enough to actually _see_ the fortress, Edér’s first thought was that it had been blown up. There was a big enough crater in the middle, two of the walls were leveled, the remains of the chapel scattered like discarded pipe ash.

Worst of all, it was dead silent, a description that had never felt more accurate in his life. Edér stopped in his tracks and gaped at the wreckage of the main keep for a minute, struggling to process the grim scene and wonder what the _blazes_ had caused it.

Slowing to a more somber--resigned--pace, he picked his way through the rubble that _had_ been one of the gates. As he feared, once on the grounds, he could see the bodies. Servants, guards, visiting petitioners, it didn’t look like anyone had gotten away.

 _Gotta try._ Heart heavy in his chest, fairly certain this was pointless, Edér took a deep breath. “Hey! Anyone livin’ give a holler!”

Nothing. He wished that surprised him. He waited another few seconds, to be sure, then resumed course for the main keep. He had to find Emiri, even if... He had to _know_. He didn’t look at the bodies as he passed. He knew what death looked like, didn’t need a refresher. Or the nightmares that would likely come with it.

The door to the main hall was, incongruously, still intact, and only slightly crooked, though the wall ended not far above its apex. Edér shoved it open with only a little extra effort and was showered in dust for his trouble. “Miri?!”

“I believe she was upstairs, Master Edér,” a familiar, level voice answered his call. “In her chambers.”

Edér’s gaze swiveled toward the Steward’s statue, but the carven throne was demolished. “Where-?”

“Here,” he voice came again, from over toward the treasury. She was pretty easy to find once he knew where to look, the broken-off head and shoulders propped against the wall. “I was quite fortunate.”

“I’ll say,” Edér muttered as he set her upright. “What happened?”

The Steward hesitated. “You should find the Watcher first. I can still feel her. She’s alive, but fading by the second.”

Swearing under his breath, Edér pushed away from the wall and bolted for what was left of the stairs. Whatever had happened split the staircase down the middle, making it tricky going. “Emiri?!”

 _She probably can’t hear you, idiot_. He pushed aside the derisive thought. The stairs wobbled under his feet. _Getting back down will be fun_.

A chunk of collapsing wall bounced off his shoulder and Edér cursed at the flash of pain.

As if in answer to the sound of a kith voice, there was a whining bark, followed by an urgency-laden howl from the ruin of Emiri’s quarters. He’d know that howl anywhere; it’d kept him awake enough nights.

“Lottie?” he called, hardly daring to hope the dog had survived whatever calamity shattered the keep.

A sharp, almost commanding bark answered him.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’.” If he wasn’t so worried about Emiri, he might have smiled at the black hound’s bossy streak showing itself again. As it was, he picked his way through the rubble fast as he dared. Emiri’s doorway had caved in, one of the ceiling beams partially blocking the space and leaving it just big enough for him to fit through.

Emiri was huddled in a limp pile when Edér made it into the room. He figured she’d curled up defensively when the keep started falling around her ears. Lottie was laying half on top of her mistress, paws draped protectively over Emiri’s chest. Her tail wagged, raising puffs of dust, when she saw Edér.

“Hey, girl,” he crooned. trying not to cough at the rising cloud of dust. “Who’s a good girl?”

Lottie whined and licked his hand. Edér absently scratched her ears as he looked Emiri over to see if she was too hurt to move. Not that it mattered, he thought grimly. The keep was falling apart, so it wasn’t like he had a choice. There were the expected small cuts from falling debris, bruises purpling on her arm, but the only serious injury he could see was the finger-sized piece of masonry embedded in the back of her shoulder.

Edér looked the dog in her sad brown eyes. “Lottie, I gotta move her somewhere safe.”

Lottie _wuffed_ suspiciously, but did move away from her mistress. She watched him, tail wagging slowly, as he puzzled out the best way to carry the Watcher from her ruined home.

It was no easy trick, complicated even further when Edér slid his hand under her head and sliced it open on the jagged broken spur of her halo, but he did manage to get Emiri down the stairs. Lottie delicately found her own route behind him, almost tumbling when the bottom couple stairs gave out under the combined weight of a relatively tall and sturdy folk male and aumaua female.

“Ah, one remains,” the Steward said, sounding relieved when the black hound plopped down next to her cracked stone bust. “It would be you, Lottie, dear.”

Edér frowned as he gently lay Emiri on a relatively clean section of the floor.  “Whaddya mean? Where’s the rest of ‘em?”

“Well, the one cat, the black one, went with Master Corfiser when he departed for good-”

“She gave Aloth Fluffy? Edér interrupted with a snort. “Surprised he _let_ her.”

If possible, he would have sworn the Steward chuckled. “Not so much _gave_ as ‘knew better than to protest when the cat had made up its mind’.”

“Bet he _loved_ that,” Edér smirked despite himself.

“He was less than thrilled, yes. But the cat was adamant, and he knows it’s special to Lady Emiri, so he didn’t protest too much,” the Steward confirmed.  “The others all ran away at the first sign of trouble, well before any of the kith were aware.”

“Yeah, gettin’ back to that, what the blazes happened?” Edér asked, looking for something to bandage his hand. In the end, he had to settle for tearing off part of his sleeve and using that.

“The statue of Maros Nua that rested in the Endless Paths... animated and tore its way out,” the Steward explained carefully as he worked. “As you can imagine, that was unexpected enough that the inhabitants were caught unawares, even Lady Emiri.”

“I’ll say,” Edér muttered darkly. With his injury tended to the best of his ability, he turned his attention to Emiri’s shoulder. He didn’t like how limp she was, it reminded him too much of the Hollowborn he’d seen in Gilded Vale. “I ain’t an expert in these things by a long shot, but I’m guessin’ the statue didn’t animate itself, An’ there’s no way it did... this.” On closer examination, it wasn’t stone dug into Emiri’s shoulder, but a fragment of her broken halo so covered in granite dust it looked like stone. “What aren’t you tellin’ me?”

There was a long pause, the Steward watching as he gingerly pulled the chunk of shattered halo free before replying. “I... would not believe it if not for my link to the keep, Master Edér. When the statue... broke free, it was inhabited by Eothas. He’s the one who brought it to life, and the one responsible for the... state of Caed Nua and its occupants.”

“That don’t make sense,” Edér protested, pausing halfway through bandaging Emiri shoulder with more ripped off fabric. It probably needed stitches, but he was no good at that sort of thing. “There’s more dead out there than I care to count. Why would _Eothas_ -”

“I don’t know,” the Steward cut him off gently. “All I know is _what_ happen, not _why_ , and that what’s left of my lady’s soul grows fainter the longer he’s gone. Presumably due to increased distance.”

“But she still had it?” He glanced at the shallow rise and fall of his friend’s chest. _Barely breathin’_. “Would catchin’ him make her better?”

“It would certainly keep her from getting _worse_ ,” the Steward said cautiously.  “But I don’t know if it would improve things.”

He couldn’t see _how_ she could get any worse without dying. And he’d already lost more than enough, he didn’t want to add another friend to the list. Edér looked at Emiri for a long moment, watching her breathe, then glanced at the Steward and Lottie. The latter shuffled closer, tail wagging, and licked his face.

“Well, then,” he said, “guess we’re gonna chase down a god.” _**My** god_. Not that he had the first idea how to do that. But he could figure that out as they went.

It was better than doing nothing, and he had to admit he’d be partial to getting some answers.

<><><><><>

“Did you get any answers yet?”  Emiri asked as he finished his story, her voice echoing off the cave walls. One hand rubbed just below the remaining stump of her halo.

Edér shook his head and rifled another pirate corpse for anything useful. “Nah, just more questions so far. But you woke up, so that’s good enough for now.”

She smiled. “Thanks. But still, we’ll try to find you some answers. If I’m honest, I”d like a few myself. But that’s only going to happen when we catch Eothas. Berath wasn’t feeling particularly chatty.”

“First we gotta fix the ship, ‘Miri,” he reminded her. “Ain’t goin’ anywhere ‘til we do that.”

“I know. And I do appreciate you taking care of me this far,” Emiri said, scanning the cave. “It means a lot to me.”

“No trouble,” Edér said, and meant it. After everything she’d done for him, listening to his gut and being there when her world broke apart seemed like the least he could do. “Somebody’s gotta have your back.”

Emiri grinned--”Glad it’s you.”--and led the way back to the beach.

 

**Author's Note:**

> \--------------------------------------
> 
> I can’t make Emiri give up Lottie. She loves that dog too damn much. And Lottie(whose actual name is Flotsam, because to the recently-off-a-ship Emiri of Pillars 1 that seemed a fitting name, but then she started calling her Lottie and that stuck) loves her right back. So screw whatever canon explanation there is for you not having any of your pets, for Emiri, she still has Lottie, Fluffy(the zombie cat from Raedric’s dungeon) went with Aloth--I do have an explanation for why it’s not with him in Something--and the rest sensed danger and ran for it and will get adopted by people. No dead pets.


End file.
